Data Size Limits for ChaosHost.com accounts

The discussion of size limits doesn't affect most users, but larger databases may not be appropriate for nor work with a ChaosHost.com account. Below are instructions on how to find how large your current files are and information on whether there are data limits that will affect you.

Determine your current data size

When we talk about data size, there are two numbers that we use. One is quantity of records. The other is actual physical size of the files that contain all of those individual records packed together.

In Time & Chaos or Chaos Intellect on your Windows PC, go to Help, then Information about My Data to bring up a window with many details about your data files. The section for Record Counts will give you straight up numbers about the quantity of Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Projects records you have. If you need actual file sizes, there is a section for Data Paths that shows the physical location of the database files. You can double-click on a path, to open the Windows File Explorer which will list all of the file names and can show you the size of any of them. It is the largest of each type of file, contacts, calendar, tasks, projects, and billing (if you use Legal Billing) that matters.

I have less than 2,000 contacts, 8,000 appointments and 8,000 tasks

No limits to worry about for you so your synchronization and usage should be smooth sailing!

Specifically for synchronization with smart phones, the Over-The-Air synchronization with ChaosHost.com has a limit of 2,000 records for each type of data. While your appointments and tasks might have more than 2,000 total, the over-the-air synchronization focuses only on current events a few months past and a few years forward. This date range should easily be within the quantity limit for synchronizing with our smart phone. Most users are well under these numbers and if you are too, then synchronizing over-the-air will work great!

This also would mean that your physical database sizes are well below the allowed file size limits, so you don't need to read further as you shouldn't have any limits that affect you.

I have more than 2,000 contacts, 8,000 appointments and 8,000 tasks

With these quantities, a bit more investigation is needed to see if ChaosHost will work for you completely, with limitations, or not at all.

One or more of my file sizes are larger than 25 MB

Our reasonable use policy currently permits data files up to 25 MB in size for each type of data, contacts, calendars, tasks, projects (and billing for Legal Billing users) to be used with our Chaos Data Hosting Service. If any one of your databases grows larger than this, you may have your account suspended so you will need to reduce the file sizes and quantities to use ChaosHost.com services at all.

All of my file sizes are smaller than 25 MB

If your data size is in the middle, more than 2,000 records but less than 25 MB in size, you may have some limits on what you can do with your ChaosHost.com account.

Cloud Synchronization with Time & Chaos, Chaos Intellect and Legal Billing

Synchronizing between computers and ChaosHost.com should work normally.

The only issue to worry about might be that the sync process can only send up to 10 MB at once, so a small database that grows larger over time should be able to sync (slowly) but a large initial database that already starts close to the 25 MB limit could be too large to use to right from the start. This will depend on how much the data can be compressed by the sync process when it sends the initial upload of your data to start. This sounds complicated, but you will know the answer on your first sync while you are still in the trial use time by whether the data shows up on the ChaosHost.com web version or not. If it does, then after the initial sync only recently changed records are transferred so the subsequent syncs should all be well within the size limit per sync for as long as the total size stays below 25 MB.

ChaosHost.com Chaos Data Live Web Version for desktop and mobile

The web version of ChaosHost.com you use with your favorite web browser is designed to show data in a way similar to what you have seen back on your PC with the full software. This means for calendar appointments and tasks, it is only being asked to display the data for a day, a week or a month. The quantity of those events should be small enough to display without any slow-downs or side effects. For contacts, however, the default is to show All Contacts at once. Depending on how large that quantity is, that could take considerable time to display. If you do have more than 2,000 contacts, we would recommend going to the Options and setting a default contact group filter for the Contact view to only load one particular group of contacts that is smaller. Once the screen loads, you can switch to other groups and you can use the Quick Find to search for a contact no matter what group it is in.

Smart Phone over-the-air synchronization

Synchronizing with a smart phone over-the-air will only work reliably with 2,000 or less records. If you have more than this, there can still be a way to send the most important records to the device without foregoing this feature completely.

On ChaosHost.com's web version, you can go to Options and go to Change Over-The-Air mobile sync preferences. Here you can select a particular group of Contacts to sync that is less than 2,000. For appointments and tasks, you can set a tighter time limit on how far back and how far forward should be synchronized, to keep the quantity of those types of data less than 2,000 within that time period.

Please Note: Even with a limit on the over-the-air synchronization, all the records remain on ChaosHost.com. This means you can access the ChaosHost.com web site from your phone and use the Quick Find to search for records that you did not send to your phone. If you search for a contact on the web site, you can still call their numbers or send them email despite them not being in the built-in contacts program on your phone via synchronization.

Reducing the data size of your current files

If you need or want to reduce the file sizes and record quantities, Time & Chaos and Chaos Intellect have an option on the File menu for Archive to archive old appointments and tasks, older than a date of your choosing. This removes those archived records from the current data files, but saves them in an external .bak file (a special type of backup file) where you could recover those records later if necessary. For other types of data, you would need to choose for yourself which records are current and which can be manually archived by exporting a copy then deleting the record stored in the current data files.

 

This help article applies to ChaosHost, a cloud database service for users of Chaos Intellect, Time & Chaos, and Chaos Free